Final Fantasy XII is out in Japan. It was on its way to another part of the world. Square Enix's Final Fantasy output slowed down a bit in the PlayStation 2 era, but it was still on track for the three mainliners and one console output that were hallmarks of the franchise with its Nintendo roots.
May 8, 2006. E3. Huge event. Everyone was interested. Square has revealed its next plan, and it's a big one. Fabula Nova Crystallis is several game projects united by mythology, but separated by cast, story, and even the world itself. It was an overarching ambition that was both dazzlingly diverse and yet united in key ways.
Final Fantasy XIII will take charge. Final Fantasy Versus XIII will come out darker and more tragic. Final Fantasy Agito XIIII will bring Fabula Nova Crystallis with us on the go. It was the dawn of a new era. What could go wrong?
long shadow of crystal
Of course, looking back, we know how it all turned out. Final Fantasy Final Fantasy Versus XIII was MIA year after year during a time when AAA games were popular. didn't do it They tend to take almost forever to release. As for Agito, it was eventually replaced by Final Fantasy Type-0, a PlayStation Portable game that was released eight years later but executed many of the early concepts.
Agito was not a huge success and its sequel, Awakening, was only released in China, Australia, and finally North America. Type-0 had teased some sort of Type-1 deal when it was released in HD on PS4 back in 2015, but it never came to fruition. Final Fantasy XIII, despite its split, spawned two direct sequels, each of which sold noticeably fewer copies than the previous one. And Versus
FFXV has been the subject of numerous “what if” stories for a long time. The three-game epic scope of the Versus concept was scaled down to a one-game deal, with a greater focus on the open world at the expense of a cohesive story of reasonable length. The result is a messy, beautifully uneven and completely unredeemable experience, but one that will nonetheless be loved at least a little more than FFXIII. It sold over 10 million copies, received a lot of post-launch DLC (and even more before it was unofficially canceled), got a Royal Edition re-release… and in its final form, it's a very flawed gem. Covered in bandages, you'll never be able to reach your target heights, but at least you'll have some fun.
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Suffice it to say that Fabula Nova Crystallis was not a slam dunk. The Crystal Tools development engine that plagued FFXIII continued to struggle in 2010 with an early version of the unrelated MMO Final Fantasy XIV. The game was shut down and re-released as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Against all odds, this resulted in one of the most successful long-running MMORPGs in the world.
Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020), Final Fantasy XVI (2023), and especially Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024) have found their fair share of fans. The ongoing FFVII remake trilogy has been particularly well-received, with Rebirth in particular winning numerous awards and being considered by many to be an all-time slam dunk. Unfortunately, the fact that it didn't sell as hotly as its predecessors in the series may be partly due to the disappointment of the FNC era. (But sales have at least increased over time.)
Final Fantasy never regained its luster after its development disaster, but at least it found a little bit of its forgotten reputation.
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